volunteerg
Member
Is sand from just offshore ok to place in your tank?
Sand from the ocean?
- Thread starter volunteerg
- Start date
drewissett
Member
I would DEFENITLY NOT risk all the pathogenic bacteria that could come in, also you don't know what chemicals you could be importing. considering how expensive the fish are in this hobby, I don't think it is worth the risk.
Sepnd the $10-$25 for aquarium sand
Anyone else have sucess with real ocean sand?
Sepnd the $10-$25 for aquarium sand
Anyone else have sucess with real ocean sand?
hatessushi
Active Member
From what I have been reading you need to go offshore at least 10-12 miles or more even. There's to much crap in the water otherwise.
reef diver
Active Member
id go out way frther than 2 feet. yes its ok, but beware of pests. Hates Suhi is right but only 5 mi is ok, 12 miles is pretty far. only go that far if u live in a bi city. I advise live sand store bought
volunteerg
Member
Thanks for the advice...5 miles off of Miami Beach works for me.
threed240
Member
I am curently testing a tank with about 50-60lbs of live sand from Myrtle Beach, SC. It has been running for about 2 weeks now and all levels are good. I have a few pieces of rock that came from the beach, along with a smaller piece of LR from my tank. So far all is good. Im going to keep testing and watching it for another month or more to see how it is going. Only thing is the sand is very fine, and it is also a dark grey. So I can tell you this will not be in my display tank, but I may use it in a different setup later. Im still going to buy the live sand from my LFS.
chipmaker
Active Member
I have used it for years either mixed with aragonite based sand or by itslef (strictly silica based from the beaches here) and I have never had a problem or a problem with any saltwater I used. The sand in the pan handle of Florida between Panama City and Pensacola is as white as sugar, and said to be the whitest sands of any beaches in the world.......Its works fine for me.
maeistero
Active Member
nope, it's not good. unless you get a couple miles out it's going to be contaminated and bad. if you know the premise on skimmers, you know that they are designed to simulate the wave motion of the oceans and foam the bad stuff to collector cups. so... going on with that, you'll need to get out beyond the waves. to get out there and collect sand you'll have to be an advanced level scuba to dive that deep and even then it's illegal to collect in most areas.
shore sand is unuseable. it may work for awhile in a fo tank, but eventually you're going to see bad stuff happening. it'll screw up anything good that you add from a nice source.
imho as always..
shore sand is unuseable. it may work for awhile in a fo tank, but eventually you're going to see bad stuff happening. it'll screw up anything good that you add from a nice source.
imho as always..
chipmaker
Active Member
So......Maeistero.......how does it differ from folks buying and using sand such as Southdown or old castle. It surely was not packaged or intended to be used for aquarium use, and it too contains all sort of unknow junk as well.........I may be skeptical of collecting sand or ussing the water that is in and around a sewer discharge or storm drain area, but there is lots of beach areas that are just fine....Since most of the USA beach sand is not aragonite, its non absorbant in nature since its non porous, so it can be cleaned very easily.......but I have never found that to be a need with at least the sand I gathered in out area. If local critters lived and thrived in it without any problems then there should not be any problems with using it in non local type tanks as well, I think it really depends on where your at for the most part. Silica based sands can easily be washed in H2SO4, or chlorox etc and sterilized........rinsed and heated in an over or spread out and allowed to set in the sun for a few days, and its going to be just fine. Do you really think they check water quality etc with all those LFS bags of sand they sell, odds are they do not. Her ein the gulf coat you can go 10 miles out or so and still only be in 60 or 70 feet of water well within any scuba cert, but its just not needed, if a little common sense is used if you use stuff close to shore or off the beach area, that is if its actually legal in your area to take the sand. In most states its against the law........
maeistero
Active Member
it does depend on the area. i'm not saying it's bad everywhere. if you research packaged sand you will find that most of it is dredged from boats well offshore while resurfacing beaches. case in point melbourne fla a couple years back after hurricane andrew, i was there. the workers that came to local business were dredging sand up from miles away to rebuild the 20 or so ft of beach we lost. at the same time they were filling a barge for retail sales.
i also will say that i would not buy unpackaged sand after last year's hurricane season. white sand is gulf sand. ummmm... how many oil rigs were destroyed and leaked for how many months into the gulf? the gulf is pretty much bad right now unless you believe the katrina efforts helped at all. :notsure:
i also will say that i would not buy unpackaged sand after last year's hurricane season. white sand is gulf sand. ummmm... how many oil rigs were destroyed and leaked for how many months into the gulf? the gulf is pretty much bad right now unless you believe the katrina efforts helped at all. :notsure: